#not even yahoo or bing!

[eorzeashan]

other swtor players: move onto an understandable objectively better pipeline game like bg3 or ffxiv while waiting for new content

me: it's-a mario time

#ooc #funny observation. #thousand year door announce awakened something in me and it was the bing bing yahoo game #this is such. a dumb hyperfixation phase to be in but i think i got tired of serious games and needed something fun. #weirdly enough i didn't even like mario when i was younger but now i do??? #it's just a charming/fun series that helps a lot with depression or not having enough energy to do complicated mechanics/pay attention #im kinda mad that the funny yahoo pizza man games are really good. #that being said the mario luigi rpg games have made me swear out loud like 45 times #im also sort of sad that my ffxiv interest is falling again

[mostlysignssomeportents]

A year in illustration, 2023 edition (part one)

(This is part one; part two is here.)

I am objectively very bad at visual art. I am bad at vision, period – I'm astigmatic, shortsighted, color blind, and often miss visual details others see. I can't even draw a stick-figure. To top things off, I have cataracts in both eyes and my book publishing/touring schedule is so intense that I keep having to reschedule the surgeries. But despite my vast visual deficits, I thoroughly enjoy making collages for this blog.

For many years now – decades – I've been illustrating my blog posts by mixing public domain and Creative Commons art with work that I can make a good fair use case for. As bad as art as I may be, all this practice has paid off. Call it unseemly, but I think I'm turning out some terrific illustrations – not all the time, but often enough.

Last year, I rounded up my best art of the year:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/25/a-year-in-illustration/

And I liked reflecting on the year's art so much, I decided I'd do it again. Be sure to scroll to the bottom for some downloadables – freely usable images that I painstakingly cut up with the lasso tool in The Gimp.

The original AD&D hardcover cover art is seared into my psyche. For several years, there were few images I looked at so closely as these. When Hasbro pulled some world-beatingly sleazy stuff with the Open Gaming License, I knew just how to mod Dave Trampier's 'Eve Of Moloch' from the cover of the Players' Handbook. Thankfully, bigger nerds than me have identified all the fonts in the image, making the remix a doddle.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/12/beg-forgiveness-ask-permission/#whats-a-copyright-exception

Even though I don't keep logs or collect any analytics, I can say with confidence that "Tiktok's Enshittification" was the most popular thing I published on Pluralistic this year. I mixed some public domain Brother's Grimm art, mixed with a classic caricature of Boss Tweed, and some very cheesy royalty-free/open access influencer graphics. One gingerbread cottage social media trap, coming up:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

To illustrate the idea of overcoming walking-the-plank fear (as a metaphor for writing when it feels like you suck) I mixed public domain stock of a plank, a high building and legs, along with a procedurally generated Matrix "code waterfall" and a vertiginous spiral ganked from a Heinz Bunse photo of a German office lobby.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/22/walking-the-plank/

Finding a tasteful way to illustrate a story about Johnson & Johnson losing a court case after it spent a generation tricking women into dusting their vulvas with asbestos-tainted talcum was a challenge. The tulip (featured in many public domain images) was a natural starting point. I mixed it with Jesse Wagstaff's image of a Burning Man dust-storm and Mike Mozart's shelf-shot of a J&J talcum bottle.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/01/j-and-j-jk/#risible-gambit

"Google's Chatbot Panic" is about Google's long history of being stampeded into doing stupid things because its competitors are doing them. Once it was Yahoo, now it's Bing. Tenniel's Tweedle Dee and Dum were a good starting point. I mixed in one of several Humpty Dumpty editorial cartoon images from 19th century political coverage that I painstakingly cut out with the lasso tool on a long plane-ride. This is one of my favorite Humpties, I just love the little 19th C businessmen trying to keep him from falling! I finished it off with HAL 9000's glowing red eye, my standard 'this is about AI' image, which I got from Cryteria's CC-licensed SVG.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/16/tweedledumber/#easily-spooked

Though I started writing about Luddites in my January, 2022 Locus column, 2023 was the Year of the Luddite, thanks to Brian Merchant's outstanding Blood In the Machine:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/26/enochs-hammer/#thats-fronkonsteen

When it came time to illustrate "Gig Work Is the Opposite of Steampunk," I found a public domain weaver's loft, and put one of Cryteria's HAL9000 eyes in the window. Magpie Killjoy's Steampunk Magazine poster, 'Love the Machine, Hate the Factory,' completed the look.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/12/gig-work-is-the-opposite-of-steampunk/

For the "small, non-profit school" that got used as an excuse to bail out Silicon Valley Bank, I brought back Humpty Dumpty, mixing him with a Hogwartsian castle, a brick wall texture, and an ornate, gilded frame. I love how this one came out. This Humpty was made for the SVB bailout.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/23/small-nonprofit-school/#north-country-school

The RESTRICT Act would have federally banned Tiktok – a proposal that was both technically unworkable and unconstitutional. I found an early 20th century editorial cartoon depicting Uncle Sam behind a fortress wall that was keeping a downtrodden refugee family out of America. I got rid of most of the family, giving the dad a Tiktok logo head, and I put Cryteria's HAL9000 eyes over each cannonmouth. Three Boss Tweed moneybag-head caricatures, adorned with Big Tech logos, rounded it out.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/30/tik-tok-tow/#good-politics-for-electoral-victories

When Flickr took decisive action to purge the copyleft trolls who'd been abusing its platform, I knew I wanted to illustrate this with Lucifer being cast out of heaven, and the very best one of those comes from John Milton, who is conveniently well in the public domain. The Flickr logo suggested a bicolored streaming-light-of-heaven motif that just made it.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/01/pixsynnussija/#pilkunnussija

Old mainframe ads are a great source of stock for a "Computer Says No" image. And Congress being a public building, there are lots of federal (and hence public domain) images of its facade.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/04/cbo-says-no/#wealth-tax

When I wrote about the Clarence Thomas/Harlan Crow bribery scandal, it was easy to find Mr. Kjetil Ree's great image of the Supreme Court building. Thomas being a federal judge, it was easy to find a government photo of his head, but it's impossible to find an image of him in robes at a decent resolution. Luckily, there are tons of other federal judges who've been photographed in their robes! Boss Tweed with the dollar-sign head was a great stand-in for Harlan Crow (no one knows what he looks like anyway). Gilding Thomas's robes was a simple matter of superimposing a gold texture and twiddling with the layers.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/06/clarence-thomas/#harlan-crow

"Gig apps trap reverse centaurs in wage-stealing Skinner boxes" is one of my best titles. This is the post where I introduce the idea of "twiddling" as part of the theory of enshittification, and explain how it relates to "reverse centaurs" – people who assist machines, rather than the other way around. Finding a CC licensed modular synth was much harder than I thought, but I found Stephen Drake's image and stitched it into a mandala. Cutting out the horse's head for the reverse centaur was a lot of work (manes are a huuuuge pain in the ass), but I love how his head sits on the public domain high-viz-wearing warehouse worker's body I cut up (thanks, OSHA!). Seeing as this is an horrors-of-automation story, Cryteria's HAL9000 eyes make an appearance.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men

Rockefeller's greatest contribution to our culture was inspiring many excellent unflattering caricatures. The IWW's many-fists-turning-into-one-fist image made it easy to have the collective might of workers toppling the original robber-baron.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/14/aiming-at-dollars/#not-men

I link to this post explaining how to make good Mastodon threads at least once a week, so it's a good thing the graphic turned out so well. Close-cropping the threads from a public domain yarn tangle worked out great. Eugen Rochko's Mastodon logo was and is the only Affero-licensed image ever to appear on Pluralistic.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/16/how-to-make-the-least-worst-mastodon-threads/

I spent hours on the sofa one night painstakingly cutting up and reassembling the cover art from a science fiction pulp. I have a folder full of color-corrected, high-rez scans from an 18th century anatomy textbook, and the cross-section head-and-brain is the best of the lot.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/04/analytical-democratic-theory/#epistocratic-delusions

Those old French anatomical drawings are an endless source of delight to me. Take one cross-sectioned noggin, mix in an old PC mainboard, and a vector art illo of a virtuous cycle with some of Cryteria's HAL9000 eyes and you've got a great illustration of Google's brain-worms.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/14/googles-ai-hype-circle/

Ireland's privacy regulator is but a plaything in Big Tech's hand, but it's goddamned hard to find an open-access Garda car. I manually dressed some public domain car art in Garda livery, painstakingly tracing it over the panels. The (public domain) baby's knit cap really hides the seams from replacing the baby's head with HAL9000's eye.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/15/finnegans-snooze/#dirty-old-town

Naked-guy-in-a-barrel bankruptcy images feel like something you can find in an old Collier's or Punch, but I came up snake-eyes and ended up frankensteining a naked body into a barrel for the George Washington crest on the Washington State flag. It came out well, but harvesting the body parts from old muscle-beach photos left George with some really big guns. I tried five different pairs of suspenders here before just drawing in black polyhedrons with little grey dots for rivets.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/03/when-the-tide-goes-out/#passive-income

Illustrating Amazon's dominance over the EU coulda been easy – just stick Amazon 'A's in place of the yellow stars that form a ring on the EU flag. So I decided to riff on Plutarch's Alexander, out of lands to conquer. Rama's statue legs were nice and high-rez. I had my choice of public domain ruin images, though it was harder thank expected to find a good Amazon box as a plinth for those broken-off legs.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/14/flywheel-shyster-and-flywheel/#unfulfilled-by-amazon

God help me, I could not stop playing with this image of a demon-haunted IoT car. All those reflections! The knife sticking out of the steering wheel, the multiple Munsch 'Scream'ers, etc etc. The more I patchked with it, the better it got, though. This one's a banger.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

To depict a "data-driven dictatorship," I ganked elements of heavily beribboned Russian military dress uniforms, replacing the head with HAL9000's eye. I turned the foreground into the crowds from the Nuremberg rallies and filled the sky with Matrix code waterfall.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/26/dictators-dilemma/#garbage-in-garbage-out-garbage-back-in

The best thing about analogizing DRM to demonic possession is the wealth of medieval artwork to choose from . This one comes from the 11th century 'Compendium rarissimum totius Artis Magicae sistematisatae per celeberrimos Artis hujus Magistros.' I mixed in the shiny red Tesla (working those reflections!), and a Tesla charger to make my point.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/edison-not-tesla/#demon-haunted-world

Yet more dividends from those old French anatomical plates: a flayed skull, a detached jaw, a quack electronic gadget, a Wachowski code waterfall and some HAL 9000 eyes and you've got a truly unsettling image of machine-compelled speech.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/02/self-incrimination/#wei-bai-bai

I had no idea this would work out so well, but daaaamn, crossfading between a Wachowski code waterfall and a motherboard behind a roiling thundercloud is dank af.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/03/there-is-no-cloud/#only-other-peoples-computers

Of all the turkeys-voting-for-Christmas self-owns conservative culture warriors fall for, few can rival the "banning junk fees is woke" hustle. Slap a US-flag Punisher logo on and old-time card imprinter, add a GOP logo to a red credit-card blank, and then throw in a rustic barn countertop and you've got a junk-fee extracter fit for the Cracker Barrel.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/04/owning-the-libs/#swiper-no-swiping

Putting the Verizon logo on the Hinderberg was an obvious gambit (even if I did have to mess with the flames a lot), but the cutout of Paul Marcarelli as the 'can you hear me now?' guy, desaturated and contrast-matched, made it sing.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/10/smartest-guys-in-the-room/#can-you-hear-me-now

Note to self: Tux the Penguin is really easy to source in free/open formats! He looks great with HAL9000 eyes.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/18/openwashing/#you-keep-using-that-word-i-do-not-think-it-means-what-you-think-it-means

Rockwell's self-portrait image is a classic; that made it a natural for a HAL9000-style remix about AI art. I put a bunch of time into chopping and remixing Rockwell's signature to give it that AI look, and added as many fingers as would fit on each hand.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/20/everything-made-by-an-ai-is-in-the-public-domain/

(Images: Heinz Bunse, West Midlands Police, Christopher Sessums, CC BY-SA 2.0; Mike Mozart, Jesse Wagstaff, Stephen Drake, Steve Jurvetson, syvwlch, Doc Searls, https://www.flickr.com/photos/mosaic36/14231376315, Chatham House, CC BY 2.0; Cryteria, CC BY 3.0; Mr. Kjetil Ree, Trevor Parscal, Rama, “Soldiers of Russia” Cultural Center, Russian Airborne Troops Press Service, CC BY-SA 3.0; Raimond Spekking, CC BY 4.0; Drahtlos, CC BY-SA 4.0; Eugen Rochko, Affero; modified)

#pluralistic #illustration #collage #fair use #creative commons #stock art #blogging #art #practice makes perfect

[para-dweller]

Privacy is in a terrible situation right now.

Especially on the internet. You know, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter(X), Apple, and even Tumblr all collect information about you to show you scarily accurate advertisements among other things.

Why does this matter?

This isn't about hiding information, it's about protecting information. You wouldn't let me know your entire life, your diary, all your photos and text messages, so why do you let random companies do the same?

Privacy Guides - Why Privacy Matters

So how do you stop this?

You can't. But you can lessen this. So I'm going to show you a non-exhaustive list of what I've used and what I know of that may help your privacy. I would recommend you go to privacyguides.org after if you want a better explanation. I'm just here to show you cool things.

Disclaimer

I am not a library on this sort of information and this is what I choose to use. I may be incorrect and you may have differing opinions. Also, this may be too extreme for everybody. Use what works for you. Again, I would recommend you go to privacyguides.org after you read this for a more in-depth and better explanation.

VPNs

You know what a VPN is. You've seen the sponsorships. VPNs are one of the most popular privacy tools, but know that they are not the only tool that you'd need. This list is evidence of that.

I would recommend Proton VPN, Mullvad, and IVPN for most users, as they provide a far better amount of privacy and features than VPNs such as Nord VPN, Surfshark, and Express VPN. If you really want unlimited devices go with Windscribe.

I personally use Proton VPN due to the fact that I use their other services.

Browsers

You should probably know that Google Chrome is basically spyware at this point. The issue here is, almost all Chromium-based browsers are. These include, Edge, Opera, and Vivaldi. The only real exception would be Brave, but they've got leadership issues, which may not be a deal breaker for you.

So what do you use? A Firefox-based browser. This obviously includes Firefox, but most Firefox-based browsers are privacy-focused. The browsers that I recommend are Firefox, Librewolf, the Mullvad Browser, Waterfox, and Brave.

There is also the Tor Browser, but that is a whole 'nother can of worms that I will not go into. All I will say is that if you are in a high-risk environment(such as an oppressive regime) or you need absolutely no one to know that you searched that one thing, you may want to use the browser for anonymity.

I use Firefox as my main browser, with Brave as the browser that I use if something doesn't work on Firefox. I also use Tor if it is a high-risk situation.

Search Engines

Google, Bing, and Yahoo! all log your searches, you need alternatives. This is relatively straight-forward.

I recommend, Qwant, DuckDuckGo, SearXNG, Brave Search, and Startpage. Both Qwant and DuckDuckGo are fairly similar as they both use Bing search results and say that they don't track you. SearXNG is more complex, and I will not go into detail here. If you really want Google search results, use Startpage. And if you don't want your search to rely on Bing or Google, use Brave Search.

I use Qwant, mainly just cause its European.

Passwords

Passwords are the keys to your digital life. And most of the time they're not that great. You know the drill here, make passwords like this- XmaE7PEj2hq9ed$w - but you can't really remember them. For that you need a password manager.

I recommend Bitwarden, Proton Pass, and KeepassXC. Bitwarden and Proton Pass are more convenient, but you are trusting a single entity, reputable ones, but still. KeepassXC isn't as convienent, but you have near full control over what happens to it.

I use Proton Pass, as I use other Proton services.

Email

Email is identity, you almost always use your email in order to register for sites like Tumblr, and sites that aren't anything like Tumblr. Companies like Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! all use your email inbox in order to gain more information about you for their companies. There are quite a few email providers, but I've only used and recommend two.

I recommend Proton Mail and Tuta Mail. Both are good email providers, although Proton would be better if you use other Proton services, like I do.

I use both Proton Mail and Tuta Mail for separate email addresses.

Aliases

Email Aliases are also very important for private email. Your email is your name, if you want to private, you'd go under pseudonyms. That's what email aliases are.

I recommend and have used Simplelogin and Firefox Relay. Email providers like Proton and Tuta also give you aliases when you pay. I don't know how well these work, but I assume that they work the Same as Simplelogin and Firefox Relay.

I use Simplelogin.

Devices/OSes

Phones

Now let's turn up the extremity to 11 as we look at your devices. Phone-wise, avoid Apple, they say that they care about your privacy, but they don't. Apple is better than Google, but I'd only recommend using an iPhone if you already have one, and it still has support left. If that's the case, then follow privacy guides like this one by Techlore(His channel is also really great for privacy guides). You should probably use a Google Pixel. Sounds weird as it's owned by GOOGLE, one of the companies that we don't want to be tracked by, but if we go with the Pixels we can use custom ROMs.

Most ROMs exist for your privacy, they are based on the Android Open Source Project(AOSP) which means they can run most of your favourite Android apps without messing them up with Google. In order to run most of your apps however, you're going to need some way of running Google Play Services. This is a backbone black-box that Google forces most of your apps to use in order to function. CalyxOS and LineageOS with MicroG both have MicroG, an open source implementation of Google Play Services. GrapheneOS just straight up uses Google Play Services but sandboxes it so that it can't get its tentacles all up in your phone.

I recommend going like this:

You have a modern-ish Google Pixel phone, go with GrapheneOS.

You don't have a Google Pixel, but your phone is still supported by CalyxOS, go with CalyxOS.

Your phone isn't supported by either of these but still is supported by LineageOS with MicroG, go with LineageOS.

Your phone isn't supported by any of these, you can do as much degoogling as you can.

Techlore also has a fantastic guide on Android Privacy.

Desktops/Laptops

Apple isn't actually that bad here, its better than Windows at least. But Linux is KING when it comes to privacy and security. There is definitely a learning curve here. Pin the terminal, you're going to use it a LOT. Also be aware that on Linux you won't have every single app that you're used to. If you don't really want that hassle, just go with Mac.

Linux distros that I recommend(for beginners) are: Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pop!_OS, and Elementary OS.

I use Ubuntu as it's the only one that I could get working on my computer.

Other Pieces of Advice

Use an Ad-blocker! Ads are terrible for privacy as companies can get their trackers in completely unrelated sites via their ads. I use and recommend uBlock Origin.

Don't use any personally identifying information online. Don't use your real name, a picture of you, your voice. The less you give to the internet, the more private you are.

Mix and Match! Explore what works for you. You might be okay with changing OSes but you might be a bit too reliant on GMail. That's fine! Just use what works.

Again, please go to privacyguides.org after this. This did not even scratch the surface but I hope this was useful to you in some way.

#original #internet privacy #internet #google #microsoft #facebook #meta #twitter #privacy #search engines #browsers #duckduckgo #linux #adblocking #adblock #vpn #proton #simplelogin #tuta #tutanota #apple #hope this helped!

[exeggcute]

the other day WIRED published an op-ed about how "google modifies search results to get at your wallet" which, when I read it, seemed a little speculative to me (in part because it made some weird claims about ads, including conflating organic search results with ad placements), and now WIRED just retracted the article for not meeting their standards and in response people are treating this like some kind of huge conspiracy but (1) it was literally an op-ed lol (2) someone shared the "semantic matching" slide that the article referred to and, unlike the article's claim about secretly replacing queries with other queries, this is a long-standing feature that adds related queries to your query, which is why you can google "dog" and get results that match synonyms like "puppy" or "hound" [ETA: I may have actually misunderstood as well; google does do semantic matching for searches, but the slide wasn't even about that—it was about running the same ad on different queries via keyword matching. so e.g., if an advertiser wants to run ads on searches for "roller blades," google can/will also treat "roller skates" as an equivalent keyword and show the same ad on those searches as well] (3) the whole thing was written a former duckduckgo VP. no competing interests here sir lol.

like, don't get me wrong, I'm interested in seeing google get knocked down a peg (even if I think some of the evidence in this anti-trust suit is flimsy) but staking your arguments on baseless speculation is not helping the credibility of the anti-corporate-web movement... and I've said it before but casting shit in overly simplistic terms of "google is the corporate big bad, its competitors are righteous and good" is naive as hell—duckduckgo's search results rely on bing and yahoo's search engines, among others; duckduckgo makes money by publishing ads through microsoft's ad network. it's corporate all the way down.

considering that both google and duckduckgo are search engines who publish ads, it makes sense that duckduckgo would want to see their biggest competitor defanged here. if google is truly exercising a monopoly (which tbh I think any monopoly is probably linked more to the saturation of their end-to-end ad network than the reach of their search, but whatever) then ending that monopoly is a clear win! but duckduckgo and other competitors want to come in and fill that space, not make the internet free and demonetized and scrub all corporate influence from search, ya know. money always powers this machine. and I don't see a truly free (as in both libre and beer) search engine entering the fray unless it finds a corporate sponsor willing to cover the enormous costs of running one, in which case we're back at square one. even mozilla/firefox relies on that sweet google money etc etc

#adtech

[sarajaytr]

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[miniimapp]

4*TOWN Giving and Receiving Small Acts of Love

Gen ;; Fluff - Headcanons

Warnings ;; Sickeningly fluffy,, you may throw up + Swearing :/

Proofread + edited ;; Nope lol

Auth. Note ;; WELCOME TO DAY 1 OF THE 4TOWN ADVENT CALENDAR !! Every day leading up to Christmas you will be getting some sweet sweet 4town content from moi !!

You all wanted it, you went for it and baby you got it !! :D This has been running around my head for a while so I'm glad I finally get to share lol

Enjoy !! <3

✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈«

Aaron T - Master of Laughter

T's love language is quality time and physical touch

He feels all bubbly when he knows your undivided attention is on him

You showing interest in and listening to what he has to say ?? Blushing so hard his face might explode

You actively asking him about his passions and hobbies and offering to do those things with him ?? Mans is passing out from cardiac arrest lmao

There is truly no time T is happier than when he's hanging out with you and your friendship groups combined

Speaking of friends, T tries so hard to impress your friends

He wants so badly to be accepted by everyone in your life

You've told him multiple times that he doesn't need their permission but he's said if they're important to you then it's important to him that they like him

T wants to be the best for you

You definitely melted when he went on a whole speech about that lol

T likes doing mundane tasks with you

Like,, doing the dishes

If T's the one washing the dishes he'll try to get through as many as possible as quickly as he can so he can poke fun at you for being slow

And if he's drying he'll pat the object once, put it on the rack and then stand staring you once again calling you slow

Tell T to do a better job and he'll tell you to show him how

He'll stand behind you, hands covering yours as you wash or dry the plates, cups and cutlery together

Or he'll start a water fight

Either way it's never boring between the two of you

T will make you laugh so hard you double over during the most boring of chores

Speaking of,,

Man is so obsessed with your laughter

He loves every giggle, every shriek, every snort and cackle, ugly or cute, beautiful or ear piercing

There's rarely a serious moment with T

He's too focused on making you smile

Seeing you smile and laugh and generally just light up encourages T in a way he never had before

Like,, you two will be cuddling realises his craving for your unbridled laughter

So out of fucking nowhere he'll spout the most random shit

"You ever seen a shaved husky before? Shits wild, man..."

(PLEASE NEVE SHAVE YOUR HUSKY ITS SO BAD FOR THEM OML THEY DO BE LOOKING FUNNY AF BUT STILL)

And of course he'll make a big thing of showing you with the most dramatic overreactions anyone's ever seen

But it didn't start out like this

T realised the random comments at the weirdest of times got you to laugh during another cuddle session

You two had been sharing some kisses (spicy, I know) when he pulled away with the most confused and lose expression you'd ever seen on him

"Are you alright? Is something the matter?"

A pause

"Are narwhals to unicorns what mermaids are to humans?"

...

ADSFRHDHJDTE WHAT ??

You can't help but burst out laughing because wtf ?????

And the worst part ??

You didn't have an answer

So the two of you spent the rest of the night on google as if that would provide answers to a question ABOUT FANTASY CREATURES (excluding nawhals and humans)

At one point T gave up and decided Bing and then Yahoo was the way to go 💀

After that day T purposely started interrupting things and spouting random shit just to see you giggle

And it works

Every

Fucking

Time

You'd be mad about him interrupting if he didn't light up every time he saw you crack even the smallest smile

But as well as spending time with you T loves it when you touch him

A brush of fingers, a peck on the cheek, a hair ruffle...

Speaking of hair ruffling, T loves it when you play with his curls

Literally just reaching a hand out to touch his head has T melting

T is literally a cat with a case of zoomies on crack and the only way to tame him is head scratches-

And just casually running a hand through his hair ??

Knees ?? Buckled

Hands ?? Shaking

Mind ?? Melting

Hotel ?? Trivago

Overall T is a very sweet lover, always looking for your laughter and small smiles alike and hey he happens to receive a couple scalp massages for his troubles he wouldn't be complaining...

Jesse - Thoughtful King

Jesse's love language is gift giving and physical touch

One thing about Jesse's gifts is that they're either expertly handmade or ridiculously expensive

In his mind you deserve something that's had lots of effort put into it

If he can't make something for you, whether he's busy or art blocked or he's just not proud of the piece, then he's spending his money on something that's equal to the amount of effort he would've put into your gift himself

Sweet ass motherfucker istg

Worst part is Jesse wasn't even trying to be romantic when he was explaining this to you

Simply factual and nonchalant as if he wasn't giving you the biggest compliment you'd ever heard

And still you couldn't help getting unbelievably flustered as he explained his gift giving ideology

And he caught on and immediately started teasing you

Fucking bitch

Not every gift he gives you will be big

Not every gift will break the bank

(metaphorically because Jesse = rich)

But he will put so much thought into everything he gives you

Every flower, every pendant, every chocolate and every item of clothing

Every gift he even considers giving you goes through heavy thought processes

What's the price tag ??

How much effort was put into it ??

Will you use it/wear it ??

Does it suit you ??

And most importantly: will you love it ??

Because at the end of the day, price tag, the effort and usability doesn't matter if you don't love his gift

You could use it everyday but if it doesn't bring you joy then what's the point ??

Jesse has little post-it notes of all your favourite things

I think he started out with just a spare sheet of paper but there was so much he wanted to write and then so many gift ideas that he had to extend the page

So now he has a sticky note disaster on his scrap paper, bullet point list

You know what Jesse loves getting in return for his gifts (not that he'd ever expect anything in return but yknow)

Kisses

Cheek kisses, forehead kisses, proper kisses, any kiss he can steal from you he will

If his kids ask about whatever he's making you followed by the inevitable "Why?" that drives every parent insane Jesse will simply reply "The kiss tax." and then never explain

Joking, of course he explain but only after thorough playful nagging from his kids

The "kiss tax" means that for every gift Jesse gives you, you have to give him a kiss

AND HIS KIDS STARTED DOING THE SAME FUCKING THING

Holy shit it was so cute

His youngest made you a really cute bracelet and then stood there staring at you as you put it on

After a weird staring contest they blurt out "Kiss tax." and start making grabby hands at you

It's pretty easy to put together what's going on and what they mean knowing Jesse

And well, who are you to deny their adorable request ??

So you pick them up, balancing them on your hip, and place a gentle kiss on their forehead

...and then their cheek

...and then all over their face because duh

Jesse walks into the room and finds his youngest giggling up a storm as you pepper their face with kisses

He nearly dies on the spot, I won't lie to you

Ever since then his kids have started to expect a kiss or hug from you, whichever they prefer at the time, whenever they give you a gift

And you notice their gift giving, a trait they obviously got from their dad, increases

Hmmmmm,, what a coincidence huh ??

Jesse also enjoys long, tight hugs where you sway from side to side and stay there for as long as possible

Speaking of, he gives the best hugs no questions asked

A group huddle with you and his kids ?? Jesse couldn't be happier

Overall Jesse is a very charming lover who will always have a soft spot for you and his kids (especially if the two are combined)

Aaron Z - Flustered Flirt

Z's love language is quality time and acts of service

Z will always make time for you

You call in the middle of training ?? Sorry guys, gotta take this call

You want to show him something cool ?? Come right in. What ?? Working on something ?? No, Z's completely free right now...

You want to eat together ?? Lunch is already prepared, darling

And along similar lines, Z will do anything you ask of him (within reason, of course)

We all know how much Z despises social events

Too many people

Too crowded

It gets way too loud

And hot

And sweaty

And Z would rather just cuddle up with you back home

Or if he's feeling dramatic he may prefer to jump into a viper pit

Spice it up a little

But if you asked him to, Z would go anywhere

Social events are more bearable when you're by his side

Whenever he starts to feel drained and uncomfy, just one glance at you fuels him for another couple of minutes

The quicker Z gets through this, the quicker he'll have you in his arms, wrapped up in blankets in bed

And hey, if Z is feeling particularly drained he'll tuck his face into your neck and hide away from the world for a while

Once he starts to get his energy back up he'll playfully blow on your neck as you're talking to distract you

But there's always a way for you to get him back because there's more than a couple sure fire ways to fluster him beyond belief

For example,,

Exist

That'll get Z every time, zero chance of failure

Or even mentioning the fact you even slightly tolerate his presence

And if you say anything more than tolerate,, perhaps like ??

Mans is a flushed, boneless puddle at your feet

He'll definitely hide his face in your neck after that !!

4town obviously has many promotional events alongside their normal concerts and meets and whatnot

Go to any of those and Z falls for you all over again

It makes him unbelievably happy and proud when he sees you rooting for him

Just knowing that no matter what direction the band takes that you'll be there for him means the world

Z truly loves you and you rooting for him gives him the confidence to be proud of himself

Another thing Z loves to do is little chores that you could do but dont want to

Like,, no one wants to empty the dish washer

Literally no one

But Z knows how much you hate doing it so he goes out of his way to empty it every morning before going to the studio so you don't have to

What a sweetheart honestly-

If you're struggling with work Z will try his best to help

Like,, he'll have no fucking clue what he's doing but he'll try his best

Honestly you spend more time giggling at Z and swooning than you do actually getting any work done

Don't tell him he's distracting you more than he's helping you,, he will be distraught !!

I feel like Z is a little self concious

One thing that comes to mind more than anything else is his height

Mans towers over most people and its like he can never hide

Z hates the feeling of unwanted eyes being on him

It's a love-hate relationship tbh

Hate being the more prominent feeling

So alongside mentioning even tolerating his existence,, if you tell him a reason why you love him for every inch that contributes to his height (punctuated with a kiss of course) he will simple evaporate

When I tell you that you'll be able to feel the heat rolling off this boy in waves

Overall Z is a bashful sweetheart who tries his best to step out of his comfort zone to be with you whenever he can

Robaire - Charmer in 2 Languages

Robaire's love language is words of affirmation and physical touch

The physical touch is strong in this one,, let me tell you

Robaire gets stressed way too much

Being the leader of the band does that to a guy

So 9 times out of 10 Ro's very tense

One way you're able to get him to wind down is playing back tracing games

Truly the most relaxing thing to exist fr

Wherever your fingertips explore the muscles underneath begin to relax

Soon enough you'll have a puddle of Robaire in your lap, blissed out of his mind lmao

Okay okay,, but if yall are actually playing then Robaire is suddenly in this shit to win it

Like,, you were taken aback at first with how serious he would get over these games

Guess the letter ?? Ro's analysing the entire alphabet to match the structure of each letter with what he feels on his back

Guess the number ?? Mans is doing some quadratic formula algebra bullshit to figure out this number

It's literally the number 2

Guess the shape ?? Immediately starts doing the area of a circle off the top of his head

It's probably a triangle

Mans is unbelievably serious about these back tracing games fr

Let's get you some chill Ro ffs

But sometimes Robaire likes to play games of his own by confusing the fuck out of you

Like,, you're just trying to trace a square on his back and he's yelling out shapes that you swear don't even exist

"Circle!"

"No."

"Hexagon!"

"No."

"Decagon!"

"No."

"Double deckahedron!"

"No...?"

"Heptathlon!"

"Are these even shapes..?"

At some point or another you figure out that Robaire's just winding you up

The variety of creative threats you sent his way was almost as wide as the range of his guesses

Ro loves these little moments with you

Being the leader of a world famous boyband is tougher than most would assume so its nice to have a little down time

No matter where Robaire is in the world he knows when he gets back to you he's got lots of relaxation to look forward to

That's what really keeps him going when he wants to quit tbh

Flirting with you in French is another thing Ro loves to do

He loves watching your reactions

Whether you get bashful and embarrassed at certain lines

Whether you fire back with your own that have his face heating up too

Or whether it flies completely over your head and he has to repeat in English

No matter how you respond though,, Ro will cherish it

Robaire collects your reaction like trophies and every time he sees a new one he reacts like a little kid in a sweet shop

He always says that you are the peace in his life, the shelter within the storm..and even if your time together doesn't last as long as he hopes it does, he will continue to cherish you for the rest of his days

So overall Robaire is an absolute charmer of a lover, always looking for ways to make you feel special but more often than not he'll find himself being enchanted by you first

Tae Young - Sanctuary Sharer

Tae Young's love language is gift giving and quality time

I honestly can't remember where I've seen this before but Tae is very very protective of the doves he fosters

Ain't nobody allowed anywhere near them

Even the guys have a hard time getting closer than a metre away from their recovery area

And you can bet there's at least 5 security guards outside at all times

Like I said,, protective

Tae can't bear to think that one of his doves could get hurt again because he let the wrong person near them

It would literally break his heart of gold

So when he lets you near them ??

Literally helps one perch itself on your finger ??

I think it would be a bit of an understatement to say you were shocked

You'd heard all of these stories about Tae literally biting people to stop them from touching his doves and he just ?? gave one ?? to you ??

But once you get over your shock you fall in love with the dove on your finger,, Maple

You start to stroke his head and can't hold back your smile when he starts making little bird noises

Holy fuck,, this is the best thing you've ever done in your life

Forget that one time you nearly did the splits,, this is your new greatest achievement in life !!

Maple is your new favourite being,, just look at his little face !!

Your so wrapped up in the little dove perched on your finger that you don't notice Tae practically vibrating a little bit away from you

His hands are clenched and his cheeks are puffed out,, he's almost bouncing with urge to squeeze you in a bear hug and he's ignoring the need to bite you also.. you're just too adorable right now !!

Bro has the worst case of cuteness aggression known to man

To calm himself he grabs your other hand and squeezes it as gently as he can manage and gives you a blinding smile that widens when you return it with your own

Spending time with you and his children doves makes Tae's heart feel full

He's also likes bringing you little gifts in the form of flowers

If Tae sees a random flower (read: weed with petals) he'll pick it for you

He thinks these small flowers are cute and pretty and that's what he think about you !!

Daisies are his most common gift but it really depends on what flowers he sees and which one he thinks you'll like the best

Tae loves gifting you flowers in person

He likes seeing your reactions,, your soft smiles get him through the toughest of days (and Z's relentless dance practice)

But if Tae's busy or feeling extra romantic he'll send a dove to give you the flower

If he has the time he'll be watching from round some corner with the sweetest nervous expression

Tae will never not be nervous when giving you a gift

What if you don't like it ??

What if it's not good enough for you ??

Of course his worries never take place in reality but he's still as nervous as he was when he first started giving you flowers

Every time feel like the first time to Tae.

Overall Tae is an incredibly sweet partner, always waiting for you with a flower in one hand and his heart in the other, ready to give both of them to you

✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈«

Hope you enjoyed !! <3

#4town #4*town #4town headcanons #4town aaron t #4town aaron t x reader #4town jesse #4town jesse x reader #4town aaron z #4town aaron z x reader #4town robaire #4town robaire x reader #4town tae young #4town tae young x reader #acts of love #4town christmas countdown

[olderthannetfic]

Been getting back into Star Trek after binge-watching it with my dad as a kid, and stumbled across the - ahem - "encounter" between Data and the Borg queen in Star Trek: First Contact. (I really didn't remember those scenes like this lmao.)

Soo, being a Data fan who does find him very aesthetically pleasing, I went to look for shippy fanfics involving those characters, and I gotta say, I was really surprised to find a total of 3 fanfics on AO3 that have their tag, and also just a few on FFnet, and none on a fanfic site in my language (then again searching stuff there is a fucking nightmare because people really aren't too great at tagging stuff accurately).

I hope this doesn't come across as whiny and complain-y, I will probably write about them at some point, once I'm past starting a new semester at university and have more time.

Basically just came here to say that I am quite surprised that there are such few fanfics about them (or that I'm just too stupid to find more, which is very likely lol), since they're technically temporarily canon, and I wonder if it's just because of the context and its kinda sorta dubious consent or if it just happens to not be on that many people's minds and there not being too many people who like the ship enough to write about it. (I am guessing the latter, since I also don't write about stuff that I don't think about heh.)

(Then again, I do tend to ship rarepairs and often pairs that are considered problematic for whatever reason, and where shippers get shit for shipping and writing fanfics. Though I don't know if this particular pairing is considered terribly problematic or not. Have read youtube comments on their scenes, and many people there absolutely despised their scenes and found it disgusting that there weren't more comments saying the scenes were disgusting lol. Also, kinda unrelated, but one of my favourite ships is Hotch/Reid from Criminal Minds, and I just recently read that there are quite some people on reddit who hate that ship because "bla healthy father figure bla - he's his dad not his daddy - bla" and use nasty words to describe shippers, but I am very glad that there are lots of fun fanfics for these two nonetheless, ha! :D)

Sorry for babbling for so long, it's half past one, and I should stop rambling at your inbox and get some sleep. Have a nice day/night!

--

Ahahaha. No, it being problematic is not why.

It's far, far more likely there's none (or none that's easily findable) because the bulk of the fandom activity around TNG was around later seasons of the show. Maybe the Riker/Troi and Crusher/Picard shippers were more into early seasons, IDK. But a sequel movie that lots of people didn't even like or didn't even see is not going to be the source of the big ships in a TV fandom.

On top of that, a lot of the shipping patterns get set relatively early in a fandom. Sometimes, a character shows up later and changes the fandom a lot (Methos, Castiel), but often, many fans stick with how they saw things towards the beginning of canon.

Adding to that is the fact that the number of fic writers in 1996 was vastly smaller than now. Spaces also weren't always set up to accommodate rarepairs or rare fandoms. A lot of archives and lists were topic-specific, and that topic could be one single juggernaut ship.

If there was fic, I suppose it was probably on Usenet or a mailing list. The great era of fannish archives was in the 00s. This movie came out in 1996. Perhaps we even grabbed a relevant list in our attempts to save yahoo groups' data, but it's definitely not going to still be up with an easily googleable set of contents.

[kissatoru]

for the FINAL time: indicate your AGE on your blog PLEASE

i know i’ve said this so many times that it feels obnoxious at this point, and trust me, i’m as tired of saying it as (those of) you (who this doesn’t apply to) are of hearing it, but i need to reiterate it one last time. honestly, this is more of a rant than anything, but these thoughts have been on my mind for a while and i’ll just be glad to get them out. maybe this is making a big deal out of something quite small, but it wouldn’t have to be if people would actually listen/care.

i want to start off by saying if you’re someone who doesn’t have an age or an indicator of it on your blog, and the title of this post annoys you, you can go ahead and unfollow me right now.

or don’t, because i’m going to block you sooner or later anyway. which i realise sounds harsh, but apparently being polite about it isn’t getting me, or any of the other 18+ only blogs on here who are constantly repeating themselves, anywhere so i don’t care about being polite anymore.

the cheap price of literally nothing but having some numbers in your bio is still too high for some of you to ‘pay’ to read mine and others’ work. like we’re writing stuff you can read for FREE and all that us nsfw writers ask is that you have an age on your blog — yet some people still refuse to do that much. it’s not only disappointing, but also straight up disrespectful. there’s blogs who’ve been following me for WEEKS who still don’t have an age indicator, despite me posting about it regularly and despite it being clearly stated on my pinned post.

believe it or not, i don’t want to block you. some of you are always in my notifications, interacting with my posts, and especially when you reblog mine/my moots’ works, i recognise you, and seeing you makes me really happy! but when i check your blog and see that you don’t have an age on it, that’s telling me you’re seeing my reminders but you just don’t fucking care.

it’s all well and good interacting with me and my posts, but if you can’t even respect the simplest of boundaries, i don’t care whether you’re actually a minor or not. you are obviously too lazy or don’t care about me as an actual person as much as you care about the content you get to see on your timeline.

maybe you have your reasons, like maybe:

you’re not comfortable sharing your specific age. that’s totally fine! you can tell me in my dms if you’d like to. if not, anything from the year (e.g. 02’ liner) or the decade (e.g. 90s baby) you were born to an appropriate age range (e.g. 19-23) etc. will suffice. if you’re unwilling to do at least that, then i’m sorry but my blog is not for you.

you’re new to tumblr and don’t know where, or how to set up your blog. in that case, you google it. yahoo it. bing it. i don’t care. use the internet you clearly have access to and find out. there’s plenty of tutorials, you just have to look for them. or ask a friend or a mutual. you can dm me your age just so i’m aware until you figure it out.

you don’t have time. in that case, i don’t fucking believe you lol. if you have the time to read a whole fic, you have the time to punch in a two digit number into someplace on your blog — or to find out how, and then do so.

some of you don’t have an excuse though. some of you will list literally everything about yourself but your age on your blog?? you clearly know how to use tumblr, you clearly know where to put info about yourself, you clearly have time so... maybe you clearly just do not care enough to do the bare minimum of reading my byf or my pinned post.

also, it genuinely does not matter, nor do i care, where you actually put your age. whether it’s in your bio, your title or a pinned post, as long as it’s there, in some place i can access, it doesn’t matter.

i think i’ve talked about everything i wanted to, so to end this post on a more positive note, i want to thank the people who actually listen. i, nor anyone else, should be having to thank people for doing the bare minimum, but, at least in my experience, when you’re having to block 9 out of 10 blogs that follow you on a regular basis, you can get pretty used to the constant disappointment, and seeing that 1 blog who actually has an age on their blog can be pretty relieving lol so thank you<3

#( ★ ) psa.

[altontowersfireworks]

ANOTHER UPDATE ON THE SMILER ADVOCATE TEST VIDEO

Okay, so browsers such as Naver, Yandex, Bing, Yahoo or DuckDuckGo have been used but no positive results so far, same goes for sites such as Vimeo or Dailymotion.

Checking Youtube or Google cache hasn't thrown any results either

All file sharing sites, both HTTP and FTP i have checked currently have no files with names that might compare with any details of the video or even the game itself.

The user that uploaded the video has been quite very inactive for god knows how long, so i am not too sure if contacting the person might have any results

The search is still going, i am still positive but keeping my expectations low as i have mentioned before that i sense there is a possible dead end or cold case scenario approaching and im running out of routes to search around in

#nyan's findings #alton towers #the smiler

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Do you think MC/Yuu/etc will find a way back home? I’m eng server and I was thinking about this because it’s not like we’re actively looking for a way back (unless it’s like behind the scenes), and Crowley surely can’t be bothered with this so…

(I ask this with knowledge pre-book 5, starting my binge today!)

I’ve answered this question a few times before, but I can’t be bothered to go back and look for my response to link back to 💦 since I’m pretty sure I responded to it under a very general tag asdgshkabsvoudvasdba sorry if you’ve already read my thoughts before and I’m just repeating myself again, I’ll try to expand on my ideas to keep from boring you--

As someone who’s up-to-date with TWST JP (which has recently concluded episode 6), I think it’s not likely that Yuu will actually end up going home just due to the nature of these kinds of games and stories. The isekai’d self-insert will never go back to their original world for real because they “have” to be in this new world to serve as the audience’s eyes and ears. They are the audience surrogate, and the audience plays these games to escape from reality. If the audience is told “yeah, you’re going back to your own world/reality”, it takes away the magic. The story will probably find some excuse to keep Yuu in Twisted Wonderland for as long as possible, or (even more of a deus ex machina) give them some way to traverse the worlds easily so we can continue having a player insert show up in the story and events.

However, I do think that TWST’s story has been pretty unique in the way it addresses very important real-world issues via its characters and storylines. I think it’s very possible for them to break this “isekai’d character is staying there forever” trope. I would actually love that subversion and am actively hoping that Yuu does get to go home. It would mean a lot narratively speaking, as they would have to actually say goodbye to all the new connections they’ve made; it would give weight to their existence and to them coming to NRC in the first place. It would just make for such an interesting conflict and a potentially bittersweet ending to the main story.

P.S. Have fun bingeing episode 5 🥲 and go to Youtube to listen to Minna de Yahoo and the deleted ending scene, I beg of you--

#twst #twisted wonderland #twst theories #twisted wonderland theory #twst theory #twisted wonderland theories #notes from the writing raven #question #disney twisted wonderland #Yuu #spoilers

[ginalinettiofficial]

hey quick question has anyone figured out a search engine that ACTUALLY WORKS?????? now that google is fucking useless?????

particularly for images. i’m so done w their image search. it used to be that you type in a word, hit “search”, and you see essentially all the images that ever existed in that word. i’ve recently discovered that google (and from what i can tell, most other search engines too?) won’t show any results from webpages that are no longer active which is just WILD to me idk like i’m trying to search for images of a specific print from this one brand that’s discontinued and i can’t find ANY of the old advertising photos they used for it because it’s not actively being sold on their website???? that feels wrong???? feels like something that very much so was photographed and had those photographs shared on the internet should still exist on the internet for me to find???? literally it doesn’t even bring up like instagram results with those images even though i know for a fact the brand hasn’t deleted their old posts about those prints. so like. what the fuck.

i also tried bing, yahoo, and duckduckgo and got all the exact same search results. this is happening ALL THE TIME and it’s driving me crazy. like i don’t think it’s wild for me to want to see photos that were posted and shared widely last year?????????

anyways. if anyone knows how to FIX THIS (is there something in my settings that’s screwed up??? i’ve tried looking but cannot find anything!!!) or knows of a good alternative search engine that actually searches and finds past stuff PLEASE let me know cuz this is just so frustrating

#d speaks #tech help #<- aka. give me tech help PLEASE #remember when google used to FUNCTION???????????)

[wenevergotusedtoegypt]

Weird question, but like, how many times would a search term have to be used by someone on a search engine before it started becoming a suggested term when you start typing it in?

Cuz I just discovered that if you type in my full name on DuckDuckGo and Bing (but not Google or Yahoo), the 2nd suggestion after just that name is my full name followed by a misspelled version of 3yo's first name. Which...is not something that exists anywhere on the internet because, even when I'm using his name online, I am obviously spelling it correctly. So it's not like this is just a phrase that exists on a bunch of pages online that the search engine picked up on. Someone davka searched this, and I'm guessing not just once...?

[kushitworld]

Unlocking the Heart of SEO- Maximizing Online Visibility for Cardiologists

In today's digitally driven world, establishing a robust online presence is paramount for professionals across various industries, including the field of cardiology. With the vast majority of individuals turning to the internet to seek information, solutions, and even healthcare services, optimizing online visibility has become a crucial aspect for cardiologists aiming to reach their target audience and expand their patient base.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) stands at the forefront of enhancing online visibility. For cardiologists, leveraging SEO strategies can significantly impact their practice by ensuring they appear prominently in search engine results when potential patients seek cardiac-related information or services.

Understanding the Heart of SEO

SEO involves a series of practices aimed at improving a website's ranking on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. For cardiologists, the goal is to secure a higher ranking when individuals search for cardiac-related terms, procedures, or specialist services. By aligning with the algorithms used by search engines, cardiologists can enhance their online visibility and attract more patients.

Tailoring Content for Cardiac Audiences

Creating informative and relevant content lies at the core of effective SEO strategies. Cardiologists can optimize their online presence by producing high-quality, educational content that caters to their target audience's needs. This could include blog posts, articles, or videos discussing various cardiac conditions, treatment options, preventive measures, and healthy lifestyle choices.

Utilizing Local SEO Tactics

Given that healthcare services are often sought within a specific geographical area, employing local SEO tactics is crucial for cardiologists. This involves optimizing content with location-specific keywords, ensuring the practice appears in local listings and directories, and encouraging patient reviews and testimonials on platforms like Google My Business.

Enhancing Website Performance and User Experience

Search engines prioritize websites that offer a seamless user experience. For cardiologists, ensuring that their website is mobile-friendly, loads quickly, and provides easy navigation is imperative. Additionally, optimizing the website's technical aspects, such as using relevant keywords, meta tags, and structured data markup, can significantly boost its visibility in search engine results.

Embracing the Power of Social Media

Social media platforms provide an excellent avenue for cardiologists to engage with their audience, share informative content, and build a reputable online presence. By regularly posting educational content, patient testimonials, and updates about cardiac advancements, cardiologists can expand their reach and attract more patients.

Tracking and Adapting SEO Strategies

SEO is not a one-time effort but an ongoing process that requires monitoring and adaptation. Utilizing analytical tools to track website traffic, user behavior, keyword performance, and conversion rates enables cardiologists to assess the effectiveness of their SEO strategies. This data-driven approach allows for continuous optimization and refinement of SEO tactics to maximize online visibility.

Conclusion

In the competitive landscape of healthcare, establishing a strong online presence through effective SEO practices is essential for cardiologists to connect with patients actively seeking cardiac care. By tailoring content, optimizing websites, embracing local SEO, and utilizing social media, cardiologists can unlock the heart of SEO and maximize their online visibility, ultimately expanding their patient base and positively impacting cardiac health within their communities.

#kushitworld #india #saharanpur #itcompany #seo #digitalmarketing #seoservices #webdevelopment #websitedesigning #HeartHealthOnline #CardioSEO #CardiologistVisibility #SEOforCardiologists #DigitalCardiology #CardiacContentOptimization #SocialHeartbeat #WebHealthCardio #CardiologyInFocus

[itsalwaysthesamehere]

Hey guys! This is from my ana doc that I keep private for the most part but I figured sharing would be great considering a lot of these tips/collections I got from tumblr anyways haha. I take no credit for any of this besides the food logs which are from my first week of relapsing. Ive tried to take things slower because I do have people Im hiding this relapse from so pleaseeeeeeeee no judgement. Im also super broke so I basically have to eat whatever we have at home. Enjoy yall!

Week one: No meat products. Prep soy sauce eggs, spicy foods and have breakfast, nothing off limits but only eat half of whatever you get for the week. Tons of salad and avoid heavy foods. 

Monday: 1800, high protein. 

Tuesday: 1600 Wednesday: 1400 Thursday: 1200 Friday: 1000

Saturday: 1200 Sunday: 1000

Monday: 1200

Tuesday: 1200

Wednesday: 1000

Thursday: 1000

Friday: 800 Saturday: 800 Sunday: 800 

Food log:

12/03/2023-

2 slimjims- 80 cal

One street taco- 75 cal

Cheese- 50 cal

Ravioli and salad: 350 calories

Total for breakfast- 205 calories

Total for dinner- 350 calories

Snack at night: 3 bananas, chocolates, chips :<, 1020 calories

Food log #2:

Breakfast: cottage cheese and raspberry jelly on toast, calories 147

Dinner: Spaghetti with garlic bread, calories 600

Snack: Garlic bread guts, 600 calories (heavily estimated, heavily exaggerated 

Total: 1,350 calories 

Food log #3:

Breakfast: White bread, cottage cheese and sugarfree raspberry jam, calories 200

Dinner: Cowboy stew with cornbread, calories 800

Snacks: Pastry :<, poptarts 1,150 calories

Total: 2540 calories

Lunch: Cowboy stew, 800

Snacks: One bite of pastry puff, cottage cheese with ritz crackers,pringles,  calories 437 

Total: 1,237 calories

Food log #5: 

Snack: Cottage cheese with sugarfree raspberry preserves and blueberries,, one chocolate, yahoo milk, sucker 335 cals 

Dinner: Alfredo with penne pasta, calories 600

Food log #6: 

Breakfast: 1/5th of a grape fruit, 1 egg white, 3 strips of bell pepper, 3 strawberries, and half a pom drink. Cals: 139

Snack: Icecream bite, 50 cals

Safe foods: 

Airhead - 60

Popcorn - 64 (per cup airpopped)

Animal crackers - 85 (ten crackers)

Baby ruth - 98

Milky way - 99

Vitamin water sugar-free - 0

Sparkling ice sugar-free - 5

Bai - 5 (any flavor)

Caprisun - 30-80 (depends on the flavor)

V8 - 45

Chinese fortune cookie - 15

Laffy taffy - 33

Pop rocks - 36

Cotton candy - 40 (10g)

Lollipop - 47

Candy cane - 59

White bread - 67

Angel food cake - 72

Victorian sponge cake - 72

Opera cake - 80

Buttermilk Pancake - 83

Pancake - 86

Pepperoni - 10

Chicken breast fillet - 17

Prosciutto- 18

Sushi - 39

Literally any lunch meat, they're all low cal!

Strip steak - 40 (3 slices!!!)

Quail breast - 69

Turkey wings - 53

Chicken wings - 77

Beef tripe - 80

Beef jerky - 82

Mushrooms - 1

Baby carrots - 5

Celery - 6

Bell pepper - 15

Tomatos - 20

Zucchini -  33

Green beans - 34 (per cup!!! Just throw on some red pepper and lemon juice and feast, sisters)

Artichoke - 60

Cucumber  - 66

Cherries - 4

Apricots - 17

Passion fruit - 17

Plums - 30

Cantaloupe - 23 (per 70g)

Mandarin oranges - 47

Peaches - 60

DON'T BINGE: 

Take a moment and talk to God about it (even if you’re not a believer, it doesn’t hurt to try!)

Watch mukbang about the food that you are craving

Watch supersize vs superskinny (its on YouTube)

Look in the mirror and remind yourself why you are doing this in the first place

Read a book

Do your homework

Do chores

Smell at the food that you are craving

Write down your feelings and cravings (trust me it helps sm)

Drink A LOT of water. Drink until you feel like you’re about to explode

Clean your room! Get rid of all those water bottles and dishes.

Clean out your closet, decide what clothes you don’t wear and donate them to your local thrift store!

Go on a shopping spree! (Don’t spend all your money though!)

Organize your Pinterest boards

Compare yourself to th!nsp0

Weigh yourself

Listen to music

Drink calming tea

Catch up with a friend!

Talk to your pet about your feelings

Sleep the cravings out

Take a long walk

Take a cold shower

Watch a movie you haven’t seen before

Take care of your nails!

Look up how to do something you have always wanted to learn (make-up, macramé, origami, sign language, …)

This might sound weird but I love sudokus and they always get me focused enough to stop thinking about bingeing

Make a to-do list for the rest of the week

Listen to a podcast

Have a self-care day (take an everything-shower, put on a face mask, take care of your hair and body)

Make an essay about any topic you like

Start writing a book

Re-decorate your room

Make a New Year’s resolution list! Who do you want to be at the end of 2024?

^ or make a vision board !!!

Call a friend or family member

Read the newspaper (lowkey more interesting than I expected it to be)

If you’re frustrated about it, scream into a pillow

Scroll on insta or tiktok

Built a Lego set

Pick some flowers!

Practice deep breathing

Try yoga if you haven’t before!

If you are still standing in your kitchen, girl get out rn

Ask yourself if you are physically hungry, the answer is most likely no

Keep a food diary

Munch on a low cal snack instead, take veerryyyy slow bites

Thing I do but definitely don’t recommend:

Binge and purge (if you purge make sure you brush your teeth abt 30mins after)

Sm0ke or v@pe (depends if i’m able to go outside or not)

Sh (please, pleaaaase don’t do this)

I’m so guilty to do this to my family and the people who think I’m in a true recovery. But if I don’t Im scared of what might happen, I’m scared I’ll kill myself or even worse. I just really want to lose weight and feel like myself again

On day one I did mess up by having meat early on but we have to go through meat products before I can buy vegetarian substitutes plus we don’t have eggs rn. 

so you think you're "stuck" here again? you're not actually stuck, you're just not trying hard enough. you can lower your intake, walk more, exercise harder, fast for longer. the only thing stopping you from losing weight is you. why haven't you changed that? do something.

It’s only been two hours and you are already eating again. You are gonna be huge forever.

if you're looking at some food and doubting yourself if you should eat it or not, the answer is no 

I doubt that eating makes you as happy as stepping on the scale and seeing that you lost weight

You aren’t hungry, you’re just bored.

Excuses to not eat:

My tummy hurts from gallbladder

I took my pills in the morning and got sick

Sky kept me busy all day

Shared breakfast and lunch with sky

Thought I ate, forgot. *Go to get a snack and come back with a drink or small treat*

Spend time cooking for others

Talk about how you ate different things for breakfast

Smaller chest

Sharper jawline

Less curvy thighs

Square hips

Dainty hands

Collarbones

Slutty waist

Sharp shoulders

To float in my clothes

To look hot in emo clothes

Deeper set eyes

Visible spine

✨️Hipbones✨️

To save money (less food eaten, less food to buy)

Mesh tops

Muscles easier to see

People telling me I'm so small

Boyfriends being able to pick me up like it's nothing

some tips on food fixation and binging urges:

hellooo, ive been thinking about compiling some things that have helped me get my mind off of food and overall just writing down some rant -- so here it is!

keep in mind, im not an expert and this is mostly just me babbling. im writing this as a motivation for myself, and it will probably not work for everyone, but if you find any of this stuff helpful -- my pleasure!

★ mindfulness ★

`` first of all -- ive found that that strong-urge-to-binge thing is more of a state, not a feeling. it helps me to treat it as such: a mental state, a spiral, and to come out of that spiral you can:

◌ stop!

◌ breath in, breath out. ground yourself. have that thought of "wait, what am i doing?" in the space between you and the fridge

◌ check in with your body. what position are you in? does something hurt? are you cold? are you tired? overenergized?

◌ check in with your mind. is there any buzz? are you overwhelmed?

◌ if you located the issue (eg. im tired! i want comfort! so food = comfort!) -- great! move on from there to resolving this issue in a more mindful, not-involving-food way (then i should nap, do yoga, just lie on the floor, watch comfort movie)

why are we doing that? in my opinon, its very important to train that "what am i doing" moment of conciousness, because through that you can see better why you want to binge. is it a mental thing? how can you cope without food? is it a physical feeling? an effect of restriction? how can you tweak your eating to make it better (imo, fasting does better job at managing binges than plain restriction)

you cant just showe thinspo at your face everytime you crave something, after all : )

★ activities ★

`` make something with your hands! ohh my god! i cant stress it enough, it can help you to not get fixated on thinking about food so much! it can be something easy like drawing, or you can look up something new for yourself

`` go on a walk. i know, it can be very tiring to even think about, but t does wonders at distracting you

`` yoga. very simple and very effective. or, alternatively

`` do nothing at all for a bit. just. lie down, turn off your phone, no sound, no nothing (helps if your binging urge feels overwhelming)

`` if you havent already, try drinking coffee. it really is called an appetite supressant for a reason

`` i wasnt the one who told you that, but you can look up some gross stuff involving food.. f*eeding k*ink usually freaks me out on multiple levels for long enough to forget about food

`` test yourself and allow yourself to feel bored. put down your phone. watch a really long flm. boredom is a part of our lives, and if you teach yourself to feel it in such small portions without binging youll be so so proud of yourself

Thinspos i have^

#thinspo #ana #anorexia #ed not ed sheeran #skinnni #meanspo #sweetspo #mealspo #tw ed diet #tw

[seewetter]

Fact-Checking All I Post Since Dec 12, 2023

Hi.

This is a pinned post that explains my current ideal method of verifying information.

Firstly: I will always state what work I did (or didn't do) to fact-check a post.

This post will be pinned to remind me how to do my due diligence.

What to do to verify information?

Step 0: Notice suspicious aspects of what I'm reblogging

Calls to Action (can cause people to act without thinking first)

False sense of urgency: use of ALL CAPS as if people weren't going to read it otherwise indicates THEY ARE WRITING FOR AN AUDIENCE THAT THEY DON'T EXPECT WILL READ EVERYTHING including the fine print?

Judgemental statements: somebody is describing something by using insults, loaded language.

Factual errors

Jumping to conclusions

Step 1: Read beyond the Headline

If there is embedded articles, did I click through to read it?

How much did I read?

Who is the source? Do I know the source?

If I trust the source: why? What makes them trustworthy?

If I don't usually trust the source but am sharing anyway, why?

Step 2: Find a Credible Source

Did i check the web address (URL) to make sure the website is not impersonating another source?

Find other sources. I read in a magazine once that its recommended to have at least 3 separate sources confirm something. That way there is likely expert consensus and not a rogue editorial board or a compromised source.

Sometimes 3 sources agreeing might mean they are colluding, so the goal here is to document who is saying what and get a picture of where the information is coming from and how it's being shared.

Did I do a cursory check of the Tumblr user sharing the source?

Step 3: Verify Online Source is Authentic

I use startpage.com (a search engine that Google's things for me so Google doesn't know who is googling & thus won't tailor content to me)

As an IT student, I know that when links show up in purple in search engines that is a feature offered by my browser history, not by the search engine. So if I follow a link on Tumblr, then check with Google or Startpage (or Yahoo or Bing or DuckDuckGo), I can see if the website can be found normally through a web search.

I can also use Internet Archive (Wayback Machine) to check older versions of a story. So far, I don't know of any case where the Wayback Machine has deliberately censored or removed information.

Step 4: What else can I do?

read full article of each source

return to the article weeks later to see if corrections have been posted

check the website. Under "Contact" there should be information about the source. Who are they? I can look them up on Wikipedia to see if the source is known to have issues.

Step 5: Offer my followers some info on how they could improve on my work

Articles I haven't fully read can of course be improved by reading the whole thing

Sources can lie.

Read different opposite perspectives (use search engine to look up keywords that might pop up an opposing perspective)

Read primary sources. Did I reblog about a law being passed? Find the official government website where the law is posted.

If a story seems obviously favour one partisan group, then: A basic question for opposing groups or individuals is (A) did they read critiques of themselves (B) do they have a response (C) does their response contain a kernel of truth or is it appealing somehow (can it be steelmanned?) of maybe even they are more right than they seemed and (D) does their response feel sincere? (E) do they have a sense for what might go wrong with their counter-proposal (F) does their response need a better counter-response?

Step 6: Justify sharing things that I half-research.

For example: I shared this because the idea (perhaps mistaken perception / fantasy) of an internet censorship bill scares me.

Reason: My followers get an idea for why I think the information is valuable and can critique me better.

Step 7: Explain: Will I share more on this story or do more research?

In many cases, I reblog things and not think about them any further unless it circulates around and generates more conversation.

As a person with limited financial means and little interest in policy discussions, I want people who read my blog to like...know about (possibly) serious developments, but I'm convinced the main point of reblogging is to increase the statistical chance that it reaches people who are keenly interested and more dedicated than I am to doing something.

That's unfortunate of course (I always worry about how wars and other nightmarish things exit the media cycle even while still ongoing!) but I don't run this blog to be a downer blog and I also don't run it to be discussing topics that only interest me in that I'd like to see people (including myself, when that is feasible) work together to solve them.

Hopefully (if anyone even reads this) people can relate and won't think the worst of me. Not like I'm the best person anyway. Uh, thanks for reading.

[cindylouwho-2]

Recent SEO & Marketing News for Ecommerce, November 2023

As promised, here is the separate report on marketing and SEO news for ecommerce businesses, up to the end of November. This is now separate from the ecommerce report (which will be out in the next week or so).

I probably won't be posting SEO and marketing news again until the new year, so this is my chance to remind you that I plan on leaving Twitter soon. You can still keep caught up here on Tumblr, plus daily on Bluesky and on LinkedIn. My plan is to have a new way to follow my news posts in a more timely fashion early in 2024, so stay tuned!

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES 

Google launched another core ranking update on August 22, which ended on Sept. 7. eBay, Amazon and Etsy lost a fair amount of page visibility in the UK, according to this analysis. The US version of the same study saw large drops for the same 3 sites, while sites with “user-generated content” did well. Then Google released a Helpful Content update, which finished on September 28. Sites with poor UX (user experience, for example too many pop-up ads) and too much focus on on-page SEO seem to be experiencing the worst effects. Google also gave out tips on what might be considered “unhelpful.” Then, Google rolled out the October Core update, which ended October 19. But wait, there’s more! They also did a November core update, which finished at the end of the month. 

Google has long denied using click data to determine search ranking, but the current antitrust hearings have revealed a different story. We also learned that it cost $26.3 billion in 2021 alone to buy spots as the default search engine in many browsers and devices. Here are more revelations about search ranking from the trial. 

Deleting old content will not necessarily help your Google rankings or traffic. However, if Google is penalizing your pages because it deems them “unhelpful”, removing those less-helpful pages will probably help the site overall. 

Internal links on each important page of your website will generally result in better Google traffic. The study covers 23 million links, but the author notes it only demonstrates correlation, not causation. Different anchor text for the same link is an even better predictor of Google search traffic. Note that Google staff recently stated links aren’t a top-3 ranking factor any more, though. 

Optimizing category/collection/section pages can provide a big SEO boost on an ecommerce website. Here are some tips. 

Google recently started showing follower counts for social media links in search results, but says they are not a ranking factor. 

Large media sites overwhelmingly rank at the top of Google search for common queries in many areas. It’s an interesting read. 

My periodic reminder that “LSI keywords” don’t help your SEO. LSI is an outdated method of data analysis that tries to find connections between words, but it was invented before the internet as we know it existed, and simply isn’t relevant for Google. Yes, related words are good, but LSI is not the way to find them. 

Semi-advanced content: how to figure out your potential buyers’ path to your product through Google data. This is a little more detailed than figuring out which problems people have and how you can solve them, but the basic idea is there. 

In case you missed everything on Google in August, here is a roundup, then you can catch up on September, and finally, October’s changes. 

Not Google

Bing Chat (basically, regular Bing search with Chat GPT involved) is now known as “Copilot”. The name change alone is unlikely to increase traffic, though, which is showing very little gain on Google despite the AI-driven search experience. 

Yahoo’s search redesign is expected to start appearing in early 2024. 

Yandex, the top Russian search engine, is for sale.

SOCIAL MEDIA - All Aspects, By Site

General

Branding is an important part of social media for businesses; here are some good tips on representing your business well and getting seen. As I always remind folks, you don’t need to be on every platform; that can actually be harmful. “It’s unlikely your audience will be active on every single social media platform, especially considering how many are out there in this day and age. Be thoughtful about which platforms you want to leverage for your social media presence. Once you know where your audience is most active, ask yourself whether the platform itself aligns with your brand values, story, identity, and tone of voice.”

Facebook (includes relevant general news from Meta)

European users can soon pay a subscription to opt out of advertising on Facebook and Instagram. 

Facebook uses member information to train its artificial intelligence models, but you can opt some of your data out of that process. Unfortunately, “[t]here’s no guarantee from the company that it’ll delete it, or that it’ll provide you with the information you’re asking for, even if it’s yours.” Also, this only includes the outside data and not your actual posts. 

Meta has new AI-tools for its ads, but not all accounts have access yet, as they continue to test. Ad revenue was up 23% in the third quarter.  

Instagram

Just like many other platforms, Instagram has issues with people advertising illegal things for sale. They are also blocking people posting research on the problem, instead of blocking the illegal ads. 

The basics of Instagram SEO: “The platform says there isn’t one Instagram algorithm. Instead, there’s a personalized set of classifiers and processes for each user.”

LinkedIn

Like most sites, LinkedIn is looking to upgrade some features with AI, but unlike most sites, it is planning on summarizing the feeds of its Premium subscribers so they don’t have to read everything. 

Yes, SEO can help you get found on LinkedIn.

Pinterest

Pinterest is now a bigger shopping destination for Gen Z, who are now the site’s “fastest-growing audience”. 

Reddit

Reddit removed its awards earlier this year, and will be replacing them with gold awards only, and will also pay top creators who earn at least 10 gold a month. 

Reddit may end up blocking Google and Bing from crawling the site, as a way to stop AI training. 

Snapchat

Snapchat ad revenue led to an improved 3rd quarter for Snap, but the company is still losing money. 

Threads

Threads - Meta’s Twitter competitor - continues to get upgrades, with polls and GIFs added recently. Apparently the site has almost 100 million users every month. They are now planning to launch in the EU by the end of the year.

TikTok

TikTok may be considering a ban on links to products for sale on other sites, although the company denied it. This may be to protect their own shopping platform: “Consumers in the U.S. are currently spending around $3 million to $4 million a day on TikTok Shop, up from around half a million to $1 million a day in June, the report says. TikTok staffers expect this number to exceed $10 million by the end of the year.”

That beta test is now live: TikTok Shop is officially in the United States. “As part of the rollout, the company is bringing features such as a dedicated shop tab on the home screen, live video shopping, shoppable ads and affiliate programs for creators…TikTok execs told The New York Times that more than 90% of sellers on TikTok Shop were based out of the U.S.” 

Longer videos may be a TikTok goal, as they are easier to place ads with.

Twitter

Twitter continues to die, losing users since it was sold. Advertisers are leaving completely, and others are not posting content. (Etsy has not posted any promotions on Twitter since November 14.)

Musk keeps stating Twitter may start charging users, and the company is forcing new members in New Zealand and the Philippines to pay $1 a year if they join via the web and want to tweet or retweet, i.e., they can still read without paying. A phone number is also needed for verification of new accounts in these countries. 

Twitter removed headlines from news link cards, but will be bringing them back soon. 

Tumblr

Tumblr will be rolling back some changes and focussing on “the core functionality” of the site, after many new features failed to gain traction. 

YouTube

Look for new AI video tools on YouTube in the near future; the new “Create” app is currently in beta for Android. 

If you produce Shorts for YouTube, you will want to know how that algorithm works. 

(CONTENT) MARKETING (includes blogging, emails, and strategies) 

Gmail, Yahoo and AOL are all implementing new email rules in 2024 that may impact some types of email newsletters, although most major companies have already complied with the new requirements. 

While Gmail hides your promotional emails, Yahoo is now offering new AI tools that will find those missing “gift cards, discount codes and store credits that people may have forgotten about.”

Newsletter option TinyLetter is being shut down by Malichimp. 

Substack users: be aware that your subscribers may see your address and phone number unless you change the default setting. 

The first step in writing content isn’t necessarily doing SEO keyword research [I’d argue that products are different than content, though, and that even forum or social driven content could benefit from a bit of SEO.] 

Looking for content marketing topics for December? Here are 5 ideas to get working on, and if you have some free time, get a head start on January.

ONLINE ADVERTISING (EXCEPT INDIVIDUAL SOCIAL MEDIA AND ECOMMERCE SITES) 

Did you know there are tools to track ads from different companies on many ad sites? Some are even free. [includes TikTok, Meta, Google and LinkedIn]

Ecommerce advertisers may find Amazon a better place to spend their budget compared to Google Ads. “Amazon’s search volume comprises 54% of all product-related searches in the United States.”

Google’s third quarter was decent, but Cloud revenue was below projections while ad money was up. Microsoft’s ad revenue also improved. 

Chrome plans on ending all third-party cookies by the end of the third quarter 2024, and will start with 1% of users in early 2024. This will affect some types of ads, if you are wondering why platforms start changing. 

Anyone using Google’s Performance Max campaigns may be interested in this overview of how to get the most out of them, with screenshots. 

STATS, DATA, TRACKING 

Since a lot of people still can’t figure out Google Analytics 4, here is yet another good overview. 

This new YouTube video from Google shows you how to figure out traffic sources in Google Analytics 4. 

Still working on moving to GA4? Here’s a bit more info, including how to save your old UA data. 

For video learners, here is “5 reasons for using Google Search Console”. [YouTube, 3 mins.]

BUSINESS & CONSUMER TRENDS, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE 

A report out of the UK on small business use of online platforms calls for the UK government to better protect small businesses from the power differential often evident in these relationships. 

Amazon’s Prime Day sales barely beat last year, while their competitors actually dropped. [Washington Post gift link] Some analysts think this bodes poorly for the holiday season, and that consumers are looking for discounts.

Around 50% of Generation Zers in the US plan to shop in malls this holiday season, and people in general plan on spending less this year. But another study said nearly half of Gen Z shoppers will make at least some purchases on social media, while the US average is just ⅓. Most online holiday shopping will take place on mobile instead of computers, and ecommerce shopping will be up less than 5% per some reports, and over 10% according to others. Black Friday stats also indicate that mobile outpaced desktop - smart phones delivered 54% of online sales. “Global data from Shopify also showed strong mobile performance for merchants on that platform. Mobile versus desktop 76% to 24%, respectively.”

Large companies report that various types of consumer fraud are on the increase, and cost $100 billion annually. 

IMAGES, VIDEO, GRAPHIC DESIGN, & FREE ONLINE TOOLS

Thinking of using AI to create some products and images to sell? Be aware that AI art is not copyright-protected, at least in the US at the moment. A recent case led the court to rule that “human authorship is a bedrock requirement of copyright.” [article includes a copy of the entire case]

Need some free web design tools? Practical Ecommerce has a recent list of 19, and an even more recent list of 17. 

MISCELLANEOUS (including humour) 

A snarky article in the Verge had SEOs all worked up, and some were very defensive about it. I thought the whole thing was hilarious. 

Reminder that there are usually consequences for (and laws against) improper use of a customer’s private information, which includes asking them on a date. “Almost one in three people aged 18-34 have received unwanted romantic contact after giving their personal information to a business, a UK poll has shown.”

Do you know what happens to your website and social media accounts when you die? Sometimes, even the platforms get confused about this, and there are few laws. 

Jewellery finding company TierraCast is closing by the end of 2023. 

UPDATED: December 4, 2023

#seo #social media #microbusiness #cindylouwho2 #search engine optimization #marketing #content marketing